Jonathan Binstock has been named
the next Director of the Memorial Art Gallery, the University of Rochester
announced Monday. University President Joel Seligman and Memorial Art Gallery
Board of Managers Chair Jim Durfee made the
announcement following a seven month search to replace outgoing director Grant
Holcomb.

Binstock comes to Rochester from
New York City, where he has been a senior vice president and senior adviser in
modern and contemporary art for Citi Private Bank’s Art Advisory & Finance
group.

“Our new director is the right person for the Memorial Art
Gallery as it begins its second century” Seligman says. “He is a scholar of
extraordinary accomplishment.” Binstock has taught at
the University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and has several
published pieces.

Binstock’s curatorial career spans
more than a decade and has taken shape at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
and Corcoran Gallery of Art, among other places.

Seligman says that Binstock was
selected not for his resume, but for his character. “As you get to know him,
you will see a truly visionary leader, an enthusiast for art, who brings a
focused passion that is quite extraordinary,” he says.

Though he comes from a background with a contemporary focus
as an expert in post-World War II art, “he is a person with a very broad range,
in terms of his understanding of art,” Seligman says.

Binstock says he is excited about
this particular opportunity in this museum. “From the very first time I stepped
foot into the gallery, I really became enamored of a number of works of art
that I discovered for the very first time,” he says. This list includes what he
calls “A-Plus” works such as “Waterloo Bridge – Veiled Sun” by Claude Monet,
and the ancient Egyptian coffin of Pa-debehu-Aset, which he notes as an impressive acquisition for a museum
in a city of this size.

“The thing about the Memorial Art Gallery is that you can see
Ancient Egyptian sculpture in the context of a surrealist box by Joseph
Cornell,” Binstock says. “You can see European
Impressionism in the context of American Impressionism. You can see
Contemporary sculpture in the context of 19th Century American sculpture. It’s
an almost encyclopedic museum, it has incredible range, incredible depth,” he
says.

Binstock describes himself as a
big-picture art scholar. “I’ve been a curator of contemporary art, that’s where
my expertise lies. But I’ve always seen contemporary art in the context of art
history, world art, historical art, because it has to measure up, it has to
make sense in that broader context,” he says. “So this is a special opportunity
for a person like me. I’m excited to work in this broad context, and to connect
all of these dots, and to see the big picture through whatever it is that the
MAG will be doing in the years ahead.”

Binstock spoke enthusiastically about
looking forward to demonstrating to an ever-broader audience the value of the
museum, and about his excitement to work with the MAG staff and board. Despite
this impressive collection of 11,000 objects, and the rich opportunities
involved with the MAG’s affiliation with one of the world’s top research
institutions, he says the greatest assets of the museum are the people devoted
to its success.

Binstock’s appointment follows
Holcomb’s 29 year tenure, which will continue at least through the end of July.
Though no specific date has been given, Binstock says
he will begin work as MAG’s seventh director “on or around September 1.”

This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2014.